Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The object of every man’s fantasy just lost her wings…
Kaia Verde is one of the four Faerie Handmaids of Zafira, Queen of the Fey. To redress an
ancient wrong done to Zafira by a human king, the Handmaids make sport of mortal men,
seducing and humiliating them. When Kaia sets out to seduce Garrett Jameson, but ends up
being the one surrendering to pleasure, Zafira is furious. Kaia’s punishment is simple: make
Garrett fall in love with her by the summer solstice, then break his heart, or face eternity without
her wings—or her soul. To make the task harder, Zafira tells Kaia she cannot use her faerie
magic or charm to lure Garrett into her bed.

…and now she’s losing her heart…
Kaia thinks her task will be relatively easy—as a faerie, she understands lust, and can love be
much different? But once she is living among the humans, Kaia discovers the race she once
disparaged is far more complex and beautiful than she imagined. She learns before she can
break Garrett’s heart, she must find a way to heal it. And eventually, discovers that losing her
wings may be a far easier price to pay than losing her heart.

Do Clothes Make the Man (or Woman?

by Inara Scott

I recently got a dramatic new look: I cut my hair from shoulder-length to a pixie, and let me tell you, it’s short. And totally different. The strangest thing about my transformation is that I now feel obliged to wear earrings, necklaces, and hip outfits. I’m not kidding. I feel like I have to live up to my hair!

Generally, though, this is a good thing. I’ve been living a little too long in my stay-at-home-mom-bob, yoga pants, and sweatshirts. I don’t mean to criticize this look (that would be like criticizing my second skin!). But sometimes you get too comfortable. The routine becomes a way of checking out. And while I don’t want to obsess about my appearance, I do want to continue to feel like a sexy, beautiful woman.

The haircut is helping me do this.

Clothes, hair, accessories…they have an incredible power to change our mood, our thoughts, even our personality. When I put on my lawyer suits, I take myself more seriously. When I wear big dangly earrings, I feel younger. More artistic. More, well, interesting.

As a writer, I am constantly learning about my characters through the lens of my own experiences. And this experience has renewed my fascination with makeovers. New hair, clothes, jewelery—it’s incredible how this can affect our characters.

Take Kaia, the heroine in my faerie romance, Radiant Desire. When she is forced to change from faerie to human, she goes from wearing six-hundred dollar evening gowns and staying in boutique five-star hotels, to picking her clothes out of a bin at a homeless shelter. This changes her. It must. She becomes less sure of herself, but also more aware of other people. She learns more about who she really is, while gaining an appreciation for her flawed, imperfect exterior.

The wonderful thing is, by become flawed, Kaia becomes even more attractive to Garrett, the object of her desire. (Though, of course, she doesn’t know that!) Here’s Garrett’s reaction to seeing her for the first time after her transformation:

He couldn’t say that she’d somehow become plain, or even that she looked entirely comfortable in Rachel’s house. She was too tall, too striking, her eyes too exotic, her features too captivating. Looking at her was like finding a single rose in a garden filled with daisies.

Yet this was not the same woman he had known.

As he continued to stare, her chin jutted nervously forward, and he realized the true difference between the Kaia he’d known and this new Kaia: her air of vulnerability. The woman he met just two weeks ago had been supremely self-assured, wearing an air of confidence in everything she did and every move she made. This woman was vulnerable. This woman did not know how she would be received.

This woman, amazingly enough, did not know how beautiful she was.

Yet somehow, now that she’d lost that air of otherworldly perfection and confidence and her flaws had been revealed, she had become even more attractive.

Have you ever had a makeover, or even just a dramatic hair cut? How did you feel afterward? Did you change?

Tell me your favorite makeover stories – there’s a free copy of Radiant Desire in it for one comment.

16 comments:

Well I would never cut my hair, as it is very long and I just love it like that. Nor paint it as my hair is a natural black so I really love it too, but I did cut in the front and I really like how it makes my face look more stonger and my eyes too. So a change will always feel weird but good at the same time hehee. Please count me in!

My only makeover that I can remember was a short haircut. I went to the salon and attempted to get this haircut http://www.google.com/imgres?q=ashley+simpson+black+hair&hl=en&biw=1040&bih=704&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=s8hKFxJ3PynVgM:&imgrefurl=http://www.beautyriot.com/celebrities/ashlee-simpson/photo-ashlee-simpson-medium-black-shag-hairstyle-pid38&docid=eLFXAX9LKY14dM&imgurl=http://images.beautyriot.com/photos/ashlee-simpson-medium-shag-black.jpg&w=400&h=544&ei=Zg3pTuLxLLDWiALJlagT&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=354&sig=107468082843409402859&page=1&tbnh=155&tbnw=118&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0&tx=56&ty=40

I loved it! :D of course it didn't look exactly like that coz I don't straighten my hair or anything, but it was nice :) I felt great.I don't know if it will allow you to open it, but here was the result: http://a3.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/48/77cac657675941d18365afd0bc373391/l.jpg

Great post, and very true. A change in appearance can make you feel differently about yourself. I used to have really long hair (down to my waist), and I decided to have it cut above my shoulders. It actually made me feel loads better about myself, and I wandered out to buy a brand new wardrobe to go with it (OK, a couple of tops, a skirt, etc. I don't have a money tree, more's the pity).

A favourite makeover story of mine is actually a Harlequin (Mills and Boon) romance called "The Cinderella Solution" by Cathy Yardley. The heroine is a tomboy, and changes to show her feminine side after a dare from her best friend, who then starts to see her in a different light.

Hi! Love that kind of post! I'm not the kind of girl who do some dramatic change in her style (hair, make up, clothes) but when something go wrong in my life, something I can't change, I try to make it better in changing a little something on me. I got my hair cut at the chin but one of the biggest change in my life was the lasik surgery to my eyes. That made all the difference after wearing glasses for more than 20 years! Thanks for this giveaway! Looking for this book for a while! :)

Ever since I was a little kid, I've disliked short hair. My mom always wanted to have our (my twin sister and I) hair cut short. So both of us I think rebelled against short hair. LOL But there have been a couple times that I've just gotten into a mood and had most of my length chopped off. Last time I did it, I told the woman at the salon that I just wanted to be able to put my hair into a ponytail but otherwise, she could cut the rest off. At first it was kind of nice because it was different but really it didn't take long before I was wishing it would grow back. :)

This book sounds awesome! I would love to win a copy!! Thanks so much for the giveaway!

My makeover story is a horror story! When I was young I had always had hair at least to my waist. In the 8th grade my aunt, who was a hairdresser, convinced me that I would look great with short hair (very short hair, like a pixie cut!. I went for it and it was horrible! I learned a lesson from this though - I should never, EVER have hair above my shoulders!

I have a tradition (ok, ritual) of cutting my hair short every time I get out of an unhealthy relationship. This would explain why my hair has never been shorter than my shoulders. This time, though, I'm determined to grow it out, Rapunzel-style.Something about getting rid of my thick curls after I've cut a bad man out of my life is extremely cathartic. I guess it's the act of pure freedom in making a drastic change to appearance. :)

I went for a professional trial makeover and then walked through the shopping mall afterward. I met a few relatives who wondered what looked different about me. Apparently, I looked like a porcelain doll caked with all that foundation and concealer. I love the light and airy feeling I get every time I get my hair cut and set at the salon:)